Detroit Lions: 5 lessons learned in latest loss to Bucs

Plenty of information can be taken away from the Detroit Lions’ recent loss

The Detroit Lions played on a Saturday instead of the typical football matchups that take place Sunday yet it didn’t do any changes for them. They got absolutely crushed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a score of 47-7. The game was pretty much over at halftime when they were down 34-0 heading into the third quarter.

From that crushing defeat, a lot can be learned and taken from which helps determine what needs to be done to prevent future games like this one. Here’s what can be taken away from this matchup.

#1 – The Lions pass defense is absolutely atrocious

Simply put it, the Lions pass defense is god awful. At the half, they already gave up 348 passing yards in which lots of quarterbacks don’t even get that much in a whole game. Sure, they were facing arguably the most accomplished, greatest quarterback to ever play in Tom Brady but giving up that many yards in one half is unacceptable by any means.

In total, Brady completed 81.5% of his passes completing 22 of 27 throws which brings to an average of 15.8 yards a play.

As the Buccaneers were up by so much at the half, they were able to pull Brady out of the game and rest him as a win equated to a guaranteed playoff appearance and who better to play than the Lions horrible defense.

Their backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert played the whole second half where he completed exactly 60% of passes (9/15) for 143 yards and two touchdowns. A bit better defense played but still terrible.

While it was smart by Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians to pull Brady out of the game, if he stayed in, there’s no doubt in my mind that arguably the greatest quarterback of all time would have exceeded 500 passing yards and have thrown a lot more touchdowns.

Heck, Brady breaking the record for most pass yards in one game (554) and most throwing touchdowns in a single contest (seven) wouldn’t have surprised me.